Aberdeen Voice’s Suzanne Kelly visited Tullos Hill on 29 August and St Fitticks’ on 2 September. These were sites of tree planting – and deer culls. Around 40 animals were killed (the record-keeping is so poor and the freedom of information office reports so contradictory that the exact number is hard to tell). Suzanne presents a pictorial record of the current condition of these two sites.
As we have come to expect, the report supports the scheme and the manner in which it was carried out.
(click on pictures for description )
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The city’s information office claim to have no information on his company or address – despite paying over £44,000 for this stunning result, and despite Piper writing a joint report sealing the Hill’s and the deer’s fate.
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None of this would have been possible without these peoples’ involvement and determination to turn a once beautiful, thriving hill into what you see in these photos.
Yes, parts of the hill were left intact – but much of the biodiversity and beauty is gone.
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The Minutes of this meeting are not out, but word has it those who favoured the scheme have hailed it as ‘a green success.’
It seems the £43,800 we had to repay in March 2011 was ignored as somehow being relevant to the late 1990s.
The incorrect, legally unsupportable position that the deer had to be destroyed anyway was maintained.
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Those responsible for decisions concerning the actual shooting and risk register are in for a surprise before long on that score.
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The only good thing that came from the H&E meeting was the repeated reassurance from new Convener Neil Cooney who replaced Aileen Malone that there will be no repetition of any scheme that demands the life of deer to plant arbitrary trees.
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The soil is poor, the trees will be subject to ‘wind toss’, there is salt spray from theNorth Sea, and weeds are being left totally unchecked.
Was anything like the scheduled 89,000 trees planted on Tullos and St Fitticks?
Definitely not.
If you want to attend an upcoming meeting (date, time TBC) on next steps and lessons learned, please get in touch at tullosdeer@yahoo.co.uk .
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The scheme may be over, the PR and legal repercussions for its supporters is not.
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Great article, Suzanne. That they’ve been allowed to get away with this defies belief. Where are the intrepid investigating journalists of wir local press and other media?
Yes this looks like a council project. A mess.
Photos before the hash up would be good
Sheila, there’s a search tab top right on the page. Click this and type in ‘Tullos’ or ‘Tullos Hill’ for previous articles where pictures previous to the carnage have been used. There are not a great many pics, and there are quite a number of articles to wade through … however, here is a link to an article with one of my favourite pics of Tullos Hill before the cull/planting.
https://aberdeenvoice.com/2011/11/a-meadow-sweet-experience/
See also: https://aberdeenvoice.com/2011/05/picnic-on-tullos-hill-deerwatch/
Aileen Malone is quite a bad and lazy councillor, (I was surprised she was re elected). But I hope she has to face legal repercussions because of her behaviour.
The birds will benefit with the wild flowers (weeds) dockens, sow thistle etc. they can reach the seeds in the snow. Hopefully some trees will take, if they had planted blackthorn, rowan they would have a better chance.
Suzanne says: thanks Bert; meadowland remains the fastest-disappearing type of habitat in the UK – and what also disappeared fast was Cllr Cooney’s proposal to leave Tullos as meadowland: Peter Leonard either lost or undemocratically stopped this. We know the trees if they reach a certain height will be subject to wind toss (the hill is a rubbish tip with very bad soil matrix) – the roots can’t get a proper purchase. No deer, less meadow, less wildlife. And finally, Leonard promised this was cost-neutral: while the council were being pursued for £43,800 for the failure of an earlier phase of this unnecessary, destructive vanity project.